Great Avocado Recipes to Stretch Your Dollar

The following content is sponsored by the Love One Today. All opinions are my own.

Do you consider avocados a treat that only the rich and famous can enjoy? Think again. These tips and avocado recipes will help you stretch your dollar and enjoy more of that green, buttery fruit.

this …

It’s green. It’s bumpy. It’s super creamy.

It goes well in both tacos and sushi. It’s spread on toast, dipped with chips, and slid into sandwiches.

It’s blended into smoothies, baked into brownies, and even churned into ice cream.

Of course, I’m talking about the avocado. So versatile, fresh avocados can be used in any meal or dish. They can be used as a recipe substitute for bad fats, a way to add naturally good fats, a nutrient-dense fruit to add nutrient value, and as a vegan or vegetarian alternative to dairy products.

And in my book, that all adds up to delicious.

Avocados can be a fantastic addition to your grocery list, acting as a condiment, side dish, or starring attraction in any number of recipes.

Plus, the slices look so good on your plate when turned into a rose!

Avocados are a healthy, nutrient-dense food that can be enjoyed while following a calorie-controlled diet. It makes sense to give them priority status in the grocery budget. Especially when you use the following strategies for maximizing your avocado purchase.

How can I save money on avocados?

Watch for sales. One of the Good Cheap Eats rules of thumb is to shop the sales. When you do, you’re able to stretch your grocery dollar to buy more of the ingredients you love. 

Be mindful of grocery store cycles. Sale prices often repeat themselves every six weeks. Avocados are typically offered on sale throughout the year and specifically during football season and near Cinco de Mayo. (Hello, Guacamole!)

Know the seasons.

You’ll find better quality produce at better prices when you buy it in season. Thankfully, fresh avocados are in season all year-round! 

Protect your investment.

Once you get your avocados home, do your best to store them properly. Proper storage will keep your avocados fresh and help you extend their shelf-life so you can enjoy them for a longer period of time.

• Store unripe uncut avocados at room temperature. They should ripen within 4 to 5 days. Refrigerate them if you want to slow the ripening process.
• Store ripe uncut avocados in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.
• Don’t cut the avocado until you’re ready to serve it. Oxidation can cause the fruit to brown and affect taste and texture. 
• Store fresh cut ripe avocados in an air-tight container in the fridge. Sprinkling the cut side with lemon or lime juice and/or wrapping it in plastic wrap can help prevent oxidation; so can leaving the pit inside the fruit.

Enjoy them throughout the week in many recipes.

When you find a great price on avocados or when you treat yourself, be sure to enjoy them! There are loads of avocado recipes that are super delicious and budget-friendly.

What can I do with an avocado?

Great question! What can’t you do with an avocado? In fact, you don’t even need a recipe to enjoy a great avocado.

Non-Recipe Avocado Recipes

While it’s nice to have recipes, one of the beauties of avocados is that they’re so flexible, you can ad lib with them to your heart’s content. Check out these simple strategies for enjoying avocado all the live long day!

Eat avocado plain with salt or drizzled with your favorite vinaigrette or salad dressing. In France, I was served an avocado half filled with homemade vinaigrette. It was absolutely divine, and a great way to start a meal.

Tuck a few slices into a sandwich or wrap. Sliced avocado can be a bit slippery, so you might want to mash it with the back of a fork just a bit to get it to cling to the bread or wrap.

Fold chopped avocado into your quesadilla or burrito. You don’t need guacamole to make the most of avocados in your Mexican food. Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit, and then slice the fruit into chunks. Scoop the chunks out of the peel and tuck them into your quesadilla before cooking or the burrito before rolling.

Mash it into guacamole. Guacamole is super easy to make. Pit and peel the avocado and place in a bowl, mash with a fork or a potato masher. Add lime juice, salt, and pepper to taste. For a bit of zing, stir in a spoonful of your favorite salsa.

Use as a substitute. Pureed avocado is a great substitute for foods high in saturated fat. Just use avocado instead of your usual sandwich dressing, but add a bit of lemon juice to prevent browning.

Sprinkle chopped avocado onto pizza after you pull it from the oven. Yes, really! If you’ve never done this before, today is the day! When the pizza arrives or you take it out of the oven, sprinkle avocado chunks across the surface. It’s so delicious!

Chop it into salsa. Chopped avocado makes a great addition to salsa and your favorite “cowboy caviar”.

Blend it into a smoothie for extra creaminess. Yep, you can! When you assemble your smoothie, add a few chunks of avocado for some added creaminess. You can even purchase frozen avocado chunks at the store to make this easier.

Spread it on toast. Avocado toast is a pretty remarkable way to start the day. Toast your favorite bread, mash a few slices of avocado across the top. Drizzle with a bit of good olive oil and season with salt and black pepper or crushed red pepper. For the deluxe treatment, put an egg on it. Fried eggs on avocado toast is amazing!

Is avocado toast a millennial thing?

Oh millennials. As a proud Gen X’er/mother of Millennials and Gen Z’ers, I’m convinced there is nothing new under the sun. Millennials weren’t the first to spread an avocado on a slice of bread. Californians probably were! 

That said, Avocado Toast certainly had a moment over the last decade, didn’t it? So much so that one Australian billionaire blamed the dish for the fact that young people weren’t buying homes, but freely spending on avocados.

Turns out he was probably wrong on both counts. Love One Today® conducted a survey to get to the bottom of the controversy. Among 1196 homeowners, eating out often (22%) and a car purchase (20%) are the top two actions that impacted their ability to save for a home purchase prior to buying their home.

Not buying or eating avocados.

My conclusion? Cooking at home — including these great avocado recipes — is a great way to enjoy the buttery, green fruit — and maximize your money to help you reach your goals. Better money management isn’t hard.

No matter how old you are.

What can I do with lots of ripe avocados?

When it rains, it pours, and when there’s a great sale or a windfall from a backyard tree, you want to make the most of it, right?

The obvious answer to a mother lode of avocados is to make guacamole. However, that’s not all.

Did you know you can freeze avocado? True story.

To freeze pieces: halve, peel and pit the avocado. Brush the cut side with lemon or lime juice and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, being sure to remove all air bubbles and that the plastic clings to every surface. Place the wrapped halves in a ziptop freezer bag and store in the freezer until ready to use.

To freeze mashed avocado: Peel and pit the avocado. Mash it to the texture you prefer, stirring in a bit of lemon or lime juice. Store in a ziptop freezer bag, squeezing out all the air. Seal and store in the freezer.

To use frozen avocados: simply thaw and use in your avocado recipes. 

What are your favorite avocado recipes?